Over one-third of temporary workers in US from India

April 16, 2014 11:15 IST

More than one-third of the temporary workers in the US in 2012 were from India, which also accounted for the largest number of non-immigrants residing in the US that year, according to an official report.

Of the 1.87 million resident non-immigrants in the US in 2012, India accounted for the maximum number of 430,000 residents, followed by China with 210,000 residents and South Korea with 140,000, the Department of Homeland Security said in its latest report.

Out of the 1.9 million non-immigrants residing in US in 2012, the largest categories were temporary workers (45 per cent, or 840,000) and students (38 per cent, or 720,000), the report said.

"Among temporary workers, 38 per cent were citizens of India and 45 per cent were ages 25–34," the report said, adding that nearly 50 per cent of the students were citizens of China (22 per cent), India (14 per cent), or South Korea (13 per cent).

Slightly more than 50 per cent of the students were ages 18-24, the report said. Exchange visitors made up another 12 per cent of the total resident non-immigrant population and the remaining four per cent were diplomats and other representatives.

Estimates for students and exchange visitor principals are consistent with counts of ‘active’ students from the DHS Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, the report said.

The Department of Homeland Security said about half of the resident non-immigrants (980,000) were citizens of Asian countries, including India (23 per cent), China (11 per cent), South Korea (eight per cent) and Japan (five per cent).

Europe and North America comprised another 26 per cent, led by Canada (six per cent) and Mexico (five per cent).

The five leading countries accounted for over 50

per cent of the total, it said.

According to the report, temporary workers made up much larger portions of the non-immigrant populations from Mexico (78 per cent), India (74 per cent), Canada (67 per cent) and the United Kingdom (65 per cent) than from all countries combined (45 per cent).

Non-immigrants from Saudi Arabia, China and Korea were more likely to be in the US on student visas, the report said.

More than 90 per cent of resident non-immigrants with Saudi Arabian citizenship were students, as were 73 per cent of Chinese and 67 per cent of South Koreans.

In comparison, only 38 per cent of resident non-immigrant citizens of all countries were students.

Among the top 10 leading countries of citizenship, Germany and France led the exchange visitor category, making up more than 60 per cent of the total, the report said.

California was the leading destination state, with 270,000 (15 per cent) of the total 1.9 million non-immigrants choosing to reside in that state.

The next leading destination states were New York (210,000), Texas (140,000), Florida (100,000) and Massachusetts (90,000).

The top 5 destination states accounted for 44 per cent of the total and the top 10 accounted for more than 60 per cent.

Compared to the nation as a whole, disproportionately large percentages of the temporary worker population resided in Texas, New Jersey and Washington.

Substantially larger than average percentages of the student population resided in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.